US lawmakers called on Thursday for Washington to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at one of the country's consulates in Turkey and vowed that Congress would act if the Trump administration did not.

More than a dozen senators and members of the House of Representatives, including both Democrats and Republicans, spoke at an event in the US Capitol complex to celebrate a free press and remember Khashoggi and more than 50 other journalists killed around the world last year.